(Newser)
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When a huge amount of cash and gems was stolen from a secure vault in London over Easter weekend, the daring theft was described as an "old-school heist"—and just how old school is now apparent. A 76-year-old man and his 50-year-old son were among nine people arrested in 12 raids involving hundreds of police officers yesterday, the Telegraph reports. The other suspects range in age from 43 to 74, and police say a "number of large bags containing significant amounts of high-value property" believed to have come from the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit heist were seized from one address, the Guardian reports.

After the heist, police were heavily criticized for failing to respond to an alarm, giving the gang more than 48 hours to empty scores of safety deposit boxes in the heart of London's diamond district, the AP reports. "At times we've been portrayed as if we have acted like Keystone Cops, but I want to reassure you that in the finest traditions of Scotland Yard, these detectives have done their utmost to bring justice to the victims of this callous crime," a police spokesman said after the arrest. It was initially suspected that an Eastern European gang like the Pink Panthers was behind the theft, but police say all the suspects are British, the Guardian notes. (Thieves in Paris grabbed a handbag containing $5.4 million in jewelry from a woman stuck in traffic last month.)

"At times we've been portrayed as if we have acted like Keystone Cops, but I want to reassure you that in the finest traditions of Scotland Yard, these detectives have done their utmost to bring justice to the victims of this callous crime," a police spokesman said. Hmmm. It occurs to me that there would be NO VICTIMS if the cops had RESPONDED TO THE ALARM. Scotland Yard screwed this one up by the numbers. Somebody deserves to get his ass fired for it.

GaryUSA

May 20, 2015 10:28 AM CDT

If the Keystone cops are going to ignore burglar alarms when they go off, what's the point of having them? And why didn't the Safe Deposit company idiots have the alarm company notify them, so they could send their own security guy there to verify whether it was a false alarm? Are they as incompetent as the Keystone cops? How can business owners be stupid enough to depend on government employees to do what they're supposed to do?